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July/August Favorites (2017)

Well friends, we have reached—by school standards—the end of summer. Those of you who are still in school have begun to begrudgingly wake up to an alarm again, and those who are out of school are now sitting nervously in traffic behind those who slept past that alarm and are charging down the streets like a crazy person.

To all parties involved, I apologize.

As a token of my dearest sympathies, I offer you this new edition of favorites. Hopefully you will find things to love among the things that I love so that we can all focus on things we love rather than the things we hate—like the end of summer.

Let us begin!

If I Were You Podcast

For those of you familiar with CollegeHumor.com, this podcast is run by popular comedy duo Jake and Amir. Each episode they read questions sent in by fans via email and answer them by giving advice on what they would do if they were you. Questions range anywhere from relationships to starting college to crappy bosses to crazy roommates. This podcast always cracks me up, making me look like an absolute crazy person while I’m running, but I like to think of it as my core workout for the day. (Find it here)

Kayla Itsines’ Cookbook

As some of you may have seen, this month I started a bi-monthly cooking series where I hope to spend as much time learning how to cook as I do avoiding burning my house down or poisoning my family. You can check out the first post here, it’s all about workout guru Kayla Itsines’ new cookbook, The 28-Day Bikini Body Healthy Eating & Lifestyle Guide. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how easy and delicious the recipes are, and have already shuffled them into the my (very limited) memory bank of things I can make on the fly, which is saying something, because usually that space is filled with old ‘NSYNC lyrics and directions to a friend’s house that I haven’t visited since elementary school. (Find it here)

Honey Vanilla Bourbon Pecans

I don’t care who you are—unless you’re my sister or someone with a similarly dangerous allergy to pecans—you need to try these pecans. They are so good. So good. I bought them on a whim at the grocery store figuring they would be a healthy(ish) snack, but once I tried them, I didn’t really care if they were healthy or not. They were that good. Throw them in a bowl with some grapes and you’ve got yourself a hall of fame worthy snack. (I’ve only found these at Ralph’s but I would check every grocery store around you to try these guys, again, they’re that good.)

The Hard Cuts by Needtobreathe & Something to Tell You by HAIM

As you know, I have no idea how to give commentary on music besides, “it’s good!” so, as always, let’s turn this one over to the abundant adjectivers over on iTunes:

The Hard Cuts by Needtobreathe: “musical chicken soup for the soul” (Find it here)

Something to Tell You by HAIM: “all sweet melodies, catchy rock and pop hooks, and gonna-work-it-out feels.” (Find it here)

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck & Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy

As if the bright orange book jacket wasn’t enough to catch my attention, the title of Mark Manson’s book made it all but impossible not to buy. I mean, how do you not buy a book called The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. Tell me how you walk by that book! Actually, don’t tell me, because if I did than I wouldn’t have read it, which would be a tragedy, because I LOVED this book. It was such a unique take on a self-help book, mostly because it demanded action rather than positive thoughts towards action. To explain the title, it teaches you to give a f*ck about the right things and to stop giving a f*ck about the wrong things. (Find it here)

Speaking of worth the read, if you’re a Dodger fan, Sandy Koufax fan, or just a baseball fan in general, I highly recommend Jane Leavy’s biography Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy. It is jam packed—and I mean JAM. PACKED.—with all things baseball, pop culture, and racial relations of 1950s-1960s baseball and has them intertwined in the telling of Sandy Koufax’s 1965 perfect game. I for one was absolutely sucked in by the story and found myself walking away with a much deeper knowledge of baseball, and a big fat crush on Sandy Koufax. (Find it here)

@JunkBanter

Honestly, this account made me so furious that I HAD to follow it. Why did it make me furious, you ask? BECAUSE I DIDN’T THINK OF THIS. It’s an account based solely around talking about snacks. Classic snacks, new snacks, limited edition snacks. It’s all snacks, all the time, and I just don’t think I’ll ever get over not starting this conversation. However, since the important thing is that this conversation exists in the first place, I highly recommend you go check them out. They are constantly filling me in with crucial snack-toids, such as the upcoming release of 7 new Halo Top ice cream flavors, which is a company I mentioned a few favorites ago, thus making any new releases a TOP PRIORITY. (Find it here)

Charity Miles

This app was recommended to me by my cousin, who is well versed in my mission to run 1000 miles this year. The way he saw it, I was going to be putting in the miles regardless, so why not do some extra good in the process? And I couldn’t agree more! This app is super straightforward and easy to use and has a ton of different charities you can run (or walk) for. All you have to do is choose a charity (which you can change anytime you want) and then get moving! The miles you put in will be converted into donations from sponsors of the app, making your hard work payoff again and again. (Find it here)

Have anything you’ve been loving over these last couple months? Let me know! My Amazon cart is always open…